Comparison of Double Canoe vs Sailboat

Comparison of double canoe vs sailboat – We will limit ourselves to a comparison between an 8 m long double canoe and a 6 m long sailboat. These two types of boats have some essential points of contact.

Comparison of double canoe vs sailboat

Many wonder what is better, a catamaran or a single hull. Everyone has to decide for themselves what is best for them. In this video, we post some dirty similarities and differences between these two types of boats. We reveal where these two boats are the same, which areas are dominated by the double canoe, and where the single hull is better. 

Price

The first and perhaps most important is the price. For a used and equipped double canoe or for an old and equipped sailboat, a modest 10,000 euros will be enough. This is also the real price we can get for our Ariki. There are really very few such double canoes for sale all over the world. Sometimes two or three, often none.

It is different with used single hull 6 m long sailboats. There are countless of them for the price of 6,000 EUR. It seems to me that the offer of manufacturers is the strongest in this segment. More and more people are choosing the rule: sail cheap, sail now!10

Mobility

Another point of contact is mobility. The 8 m long double canoe can be disassembled and transported with a trailer that can be towed by a slightly more powerful car. Folded hulls do not exceed the prescribed width of 2.5 m. It is the same with a 6 m long sailboat. This too can be transported by trailer.

As a result, both can get rid a high marina cost, as the holiday captain can take his boat home after the holiday. Next year, despite the time-limited vacation, he can sail elsewhere, to another sea.

Draft

The third point of contact is draft. A fully loaded double canoe has a draft of 70 cm. Most 6 m long sailboats in my port, however, have a draft of about one meter. The only difference is that the double canoe has the smallest draft in the front and the largest right in the back and not in the middle, like single hulls. Because of this, it can land with bows on the beach, like any small canoe. So you don’t get your feet wet when you jump off the bow to the beach!

Space

The fourth point of contact is the space in the cabin. If we add up the volume of both hulls of the double canoe, it is almost equal to the volume of the cabin of a 6-meter sailboat.

This is where the first divergence of our comparison begins. The double canoe has two cabins. One in each hull. The space in the hull is almost 5 m long and has two beds. One permanent and one temporary. The width of the beds is 60 cm. Height above the beds is from 60 to 90 cm. Only in one part, 1.2 m long, the height is between 135 cm.

This means that only two people can sit or sleep in the torso. And even these two not together. At 60 cm wide, this is impossible.

Monohulls are more spacious

It is completely different on a single hull sailboat. At the front in the bow is a lavishly wide double bed. Two auxiliary single beds are on the sides and are pulled under the cockpit benches. Such sailboats have real kitchens with refrigerators and more.

The cabin is so large that it can accommodate 4 people even in bad weather. Our friends and neighbors in the home port, who have small 6 m long sailboats, spend many winter weekends on boats. The cabins are heated by gas or kerosene stoves.

However, many of these luxuries are not possible on a double canoe due to space constraints. On such a boat you can sail and live only in the warm summer months, from May to October. Such a small and stretched long cabin cannot be heated. Not even because the walls of the double canoes have no insulation. Therefore, there is simply no space in the already small cabins. But we all know that a 7mm thick boat wall is a damn bad insulator no matter what material it is made of.

Comparison of double canoe vs sailboat

Deck

The deck is an important element in life on a boat. The 8 m long double canoe has a deck size of almost 30 2m. You can easily arrange a picnic for 14 people on it. We had so many of them on board at the same time, but it would be easy to find room for two or three more.

The 6 m long sailboat has a sunbathing area for one on the front deck in front of the mast. The two have almost nowhere to lie. Even a small cockpit is crowded if there are four.

Costs

Anyone who decides between a single hull and a double canoe or catamaran must have another, not a small, expense in front of their eyes. In every marina and almost in every port or harbor on the Adriatic, where our navigable area is, they charge space on the pier. Prices vary from port to port. They are united only in the fact that the price for catamarans is 50% higher than for single hulls.

Speed

We are often in a hurry, so speed is an important issue. This is an area where double canoeing strongly dominates. The speed reached by a single-hulled sailboat with sails or with an engine cannot be much more than 5 knots.

In comparison, the double canoe is a real crazy foal. It easily reaches a speed of 8 knots with the engine. But with sails go much faster. What is the maximum speed of such a boat, I do not know. I prefer not to say what our top speed was, because they wouldn’t believe me anyway.

What do you think was Ariki’s top speed in all 18 years, since was he launched?
Write this down in the comment.

Comparison of double canoe vs sailboat

Sailing

Sailing on a double canoe is very different from sailing on a single hull. The movement of the boat at sea is different. The sailboat rolls and the catamaran kicks.

On a sailboat in the waves, you can walk across the deck, and the jars and bottles don’t stand up and you need to hold them or kept in pedestals to keep them from falling.

On a double canoe, you can go in waves around the deck on all four, and the glasses and bottles stand without pedestal, as if someone had stuck them to the table.

When sailing in the wind, a sailboat is incomparably better than a double canoe. The comparison is clear: with a sailboat against the wind you get relatively far, and with a double canoe you get almost nowhere. In such conditions, the double canoe is certainly the slowest boat of all.

But when the wind gets to the side or to the stern and the waves rise at least a meter or two high, then the double canoe becomes a real racehorse with which you ride the wave and surf down it. The bigger the waves, the crazier the sailing. In such conditions, there is no single-hulled one that can compete with a double canoe.

Conclusion

That is why the philosophy and way of sailing is so different from what we accept and are used to on sailboats. If you sail on a double canoe, the very rhythm of life is different, much closer to nature. You feel all the influences immediately and directly. Everything is much more pristine and also more raw. Such a life sharpens the senses. You learn to observe and eventually see. More on that in the next video.

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